Reader j. sent us the above scan of a page from an L.L. Bean catalog. j. says:
safety
By 7.11.08
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In Mass. a new law has gone into effect requiring all children under 8 years old or shorter than 4′ 9″ use a booster seat when riding in a car. Picturing our parents trying to make us do this when we were 7 is hilarious. [Boston Herald]
Angry, Intoxicated 1st Class Passenger Uses Emergency Slide So He Doesn't Have To Wait For Coach
By 7.9.08
An intoxicated first class passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Guyana became so angry that coach passengers were allowed to exit before him that he “yanked open an emergency hatch and slid down the chute,” says the AP.
Confusing: Paint Mask Should Not Be Used With Paint?
By 7.8.08
Reader Mike is confused by this 3M Latex Paint and Odor Respirator with Valve. The front of the package lists “disposable aerosol spray paint cans” as something the mask “helps provide relief” from. However, the instructions seem to say that you shouldn’t use it with paint spray. What should he do?
Want Safe Skies? Strap This Remote-Controlled Stun Device To Yourself!
By 7.7.08
Make of this what you will, as the story comes from the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s church-owned Washington Times and may be more fiction than fact, but “a senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser.” Yes, the EMD Safety Bracelet from Lamperd Less Lethal is designed to make flying a fun experience once again. Just check out everything it can do:
- Take the place of an airline boarding pass.
- Contain personal information about the traveler.
- Be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage.
- Shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes.
That New Shower Curtain Smell Is The Smell Of Chemical Pollutants
By 6.13.08
A new report says that the smell given off by new vinyl shower curtains is chock-full of dangerous chemicals, reports the Los Angeles Times. Researchers tested PVC curtains purchased at Bed Bath & Beyond, Kmart, Sears, Target, and Wal-Mart, and found that all of them contained “high concentrations” of what’s technically known as “bad stuff”—”One of the curtains tested released measurable quantities of as many as 108 volatile organic compounds into the air, some of which persisted for nearly a month.” Update: the report is receiving criticism from some medical and science experts, including a spokeswoman for the CPSC.
Crocs + Escalator = Yet Another Mangled Foot
By 6.6.08
Another small child’s foot has been mangled by the combination of the especially-grippy Crocs clogs and a moving escalator, according to WSBTV:
My Wife Was Attacked In The Parking Lot And Rite Aid Won't Help!
By 6.1.08
Virginia police are unable to track down the creep who grabbed Michael’s wife in a Rite Aid parking lot because Rite Aid is refusing to hand over its security tapes. Even worse, the store manager apparently knows the creepy grabber guy and is also refusing to help. Michael wrote to Rite Aid’s corporate office begging them to cooperate with law enforcement. He hasn’t heard back in two days.
By 5.30.08
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As if you needed a reason not to wear Crocs, here’s another story of a kid whose foot got caught in an escalator while wearing the damn things. The kid was fine, the escalator was repaired, the bottom of the Croc is chewed up, and “Crocs stands by its design.” [CBS5.com]
Recalls: Scotts Caught Selling Fertilizer With Invalid EPA Registration Numbers
By 5.30.08
Apparently, Scotts forgot that they were supposed to register their fertilizer with the EPA because they were caught selling products that not only had never been registered, they had “invalid” registration numbers printed on the packages and some products had misleading labels with inadequate safety instructions. Whoooops.
More Children Are Drowning In Pools And Spas, Says The CPSC
By 5.22.08
Here’s some bleak news, more children are drowning in pools and spas lately, says the CPSC. The increase in deaths is probably due to a increase in the number of pools and spas in the U.S., but Consumer Reports warns that some pools are more dangerous than others.
Louisiana Sonic Employees Spat In Drinks
By 5.19.08
A representative for a Sonic restaurant in Eunice, Louisiana has admitted that two of their employees were spitting in customers’ drinks. “It was brought to my attention by the manager of the store that the incident was brought to his attention that an employee had spit in a drink of a customer,” said the rep. Oh, good. So long as something was brought to someone’s attention.
Pregnant? Asthmatic? Don't Like Rollercoasters? Stay Away From NYC Elevators And Escalators
By 5.19.08
Unless you’re willing to risk being stranded with 14 other passengers several stories underground in a cattle car elevator on a hot summer day, or plunging at extreme speeds down an escalator with a broken chain, you might want to steer clear of NYC’s subway system lifts. The New York Times has published the results of an extensive investigation that includes tales of daily breakdowns, comically undertrained mechanics, and about $1 billion spent over the past decade.
By 4.29.08
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Food and Water Watch is suing the FDA for failure to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request to disclose the plans for how it goes about inspecting various food products. [Food and Water Watch]
FDA Report Cites 49 Safety Issues At Merck Vaccine Plant
By 4.28.08
Between November of last year and this past January, the FDA “cited 49 areas of concern, including a failure to follow good manufacturing practices” at Merck & Co. Inc’s vaccine plant in Pennsylvania. A Merck spokesman says that most of the incidents were found and reported by Merck’s own employees, and that they occurred in the manufacturing process, not the vaccines themselves: “He stressed that no contamination was found in finished vaccines and that Merck was addressing all the problems.”
Recalled Heparin Contaminant Confirmed, And Congress Grills FDA On Inspections
By 4.24.08
Researchers have identified the chemical in the contaminated blood thinner Heparin that killed 81 people in the U.S. and made patients here and in Europe sick:The researchers freeze-dried the heparin and used a combination of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and liquid chromatography-mass…
Should Companies Replace BPA Baby Products In The U.S.?
By 4.24.08
There’s nothing official about BPA in the U.S. (yet), and there’s no legal reason (again, yet) for a company to refund or replace any products that have BPA in them.
Midwest Airlines: The Milwaukee Brewers Are More Important Than You
By 4.21.08
Midwest Airlines flies the Milwaukee Brewers on their planes through a “charter service” says the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, but the Brewers weren’t grounded like the over 100,000 other passengers who were booked on MD-80s.
